


Coffee, Tea & IT

by koalathebear



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 20:52:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3992458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during the episodes 2.02 Identity and 2.06 Keep Your Enemies Closer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coffee, Tea & IT

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little scribble about Felicity becoming Oliver's EA and Isabel's comments because it really bothered me ...

"I quit!" Felicity announced, her voice snapping with irritation. To be precise, she had never actually agreed to the change of position in the first place. Oliver Queen had simply presented it as though it was a _fait accompli_ , showing her the desk with the wonderful view of the city - and of him. Very typical Oliver Queen behaviour – making arbitrary decisions for those around him without consultation or consideration.

"No, you don't," Oliver countered as they walked from the lifts towards Oliver's office.

"Yes, I do," she retorted. "Not my old job in the I.T. Department, but my new job as your executive assistant, which you think I'm going to accept." 

"Your thinking could not be more wrong in this matter. I need a girl Wednesday," he tried to explain.

"It's _Friday_ , and the answer is no!" she exclaimed loudly.

Oliver looked frustrated as he attempted to reason with her. "These computers have been upgraded - far more processing power than your typical secretary." His words failed to appease her.

"Did you know I went to M.I.T.? Guess what I majored in. Hint-- not the secretarial arts," she told him firmly.

"Felicity! We all need to have secret identities now. If I'm going to be Oliver Queen CEO, then I can't very well travel down 18 floors every time you and I need to discuss how we spend our nights."

"And I love spending the night with you," she answered without thinking and then rolled her eyes at herself for yet another double entrendre. "I worked very hard to get where I am, and it wasn't so I could fetch you coffee!" 

She was irritated with him for not understanding. She wasn't a snob and there was nothing wrong with being his EA, she had no doubt that there was a great deal of prestige and power associated with the position - but she hadn't spent all this time earning her qualifications to have them ignored officially.

"Well, it could be worse - my secret identity is his black driver," John pointed out dryly, popping a piece of gum and looking decided underwhelmed at his secret identity.

Oliver's expression betrayed his exasperation but he spoke in his usual controlled and deli berate manner. "Right now I need you to figure out how the hijackers are getting a line on the goods earmarked for Glades Memorial. If we know how they're picking their targets, we will know when and where to stop them." He spoke firmly, trying to change the topic, knowing that the goal-oriented Felicity Smoak would be diverted by the urgency of the task at hand.

"Fine," she muttered irritably. She turned and stared at him. "Oh! May I get you a cup of coffee?" She asked him tightly, her eyes shooting daggers at him.

"You're not actually offering to get me a cup of coffee, are you?" he asked her, looking faintly pained as he realised that this was how it was going to be from his irreverent 'Executive Assistant."

"Yeah, no," she told him flatly. "That won't be happening. Ever!"

He looked resigned. "Well, if you can bring yourself to do it, can you please make reservations for Dig, Carly and I Saturday night at Table Salt?"

"Sure! I'll get right on that," she called out to him through his office door as she reached her keyboard and her tablet. "Using the Internet," she called out sarcastically. "Which you also happen to have access to." Then she glanced over at John.

"Still haven't told him?" she demanded of him quietly.

"He has enough on his plate," John replied and she shook her head disapprovingly.

*

Oliver looked a little offended and Isabel Rochev looked at him witheringly, her dark eyes filled with scorn. "Only if I think you use the corporate jet for a weekend of fun with your assistant." Her implication couldn't be clearer.

" _Excuse_ me?" Oliver demanded, more than a little astounded and shocked at the accusation. It had never occurred to him that people would make incorrect and inappropriate assumptions about his relationship with Felicity Smoak.

"A blonde I.T. girl all of a sudden gets promoted to be assistant to the C.E.O.? There are only two ways that happens. One is nepotism, and she doesn't look like your cousin."

"That is absolutely not happening," Oliver assured her, still reeling from the implications of her innuendo… I mean this was Felicity. He adored her but he didn't really see her in _that_ way …

"What were her qualifications?" Isabel demanded. "Aside from an abundance of short skirts?" she asked insultingly as she walked away from him.

"Her skirts aren't that short," Oliver protested, finding himself feeling offended on Felicity's behalf.

"What was that about?" Felicity asked curiously, coming up to him and staring at his troubled face.

"Nothing," he replied, hoping fervently that no one else had made the same assumptions about him and Felicity.

*

At the knock on his door, he opened it, conscious of Isabel's strong perfume in his nostrils and on his clothing.

"Hi," Felicity was standing there, staring at him with her steady, forthright gaze.

"Hi." 

"It's time. Ready?" she asked him, looking a little puzzled.

"Yeah, I--" he began to stammer, looking very uncomfortable. For some reason, he desperately did not care to have Felicity finding out that Isabel was in his hotel suite. 

"I think she can take the night off," Isabel drawled insultingly from behind Oliver. "Don't you" she demanded.

"Ohh. Felicity It--" Oliver started to try to explain as he stared at the look of shocked comprehension in the young woman's eyes. A range of emotions flickered in Felicity's eyes – hurt, disbelief and back to hurt.

"What happens in Russia stays in Russia," Felicity muttered. "Even when it makes no sense whatsoever."

*

"What were you thinking?" Felicity demanded after a long and stony silence in the car.

"What?" Oliver demanded, even though he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Over 64 million women over the age of consent in Russia and you sleep with her." 

"So we're not doing the "What happens in Russia stays in Russia?""

"We're still in Russia," she muttered, clearly still in shock. 

Laurel she could understand, even Helena to a certain extent... but Isabel was rude, cold and quite unpleasant ...

*  
After the return to Starling City, when he asked her to have something delivered to Isabel, Felicity was unable to stop herself asking,"Why her? I mean, besides the obvious leggy model reason..."

"It just kind of happened. It didn't mean anything," he told her. He saw from the expression on his face that his words had done nothing to make her feel better. " Because of the life that I lead I just think that it's better to not ... be with someone that I could really care about," he found himself explaining even though technically, he didn't have any obligation to explain things to her.

"Well, I think I think you deserve better than her," she told him softly and then looked away.

*

Later that evening, he returned to his office and Felicity was still at her desk typing at her computer. He smiled. She sat in her dark office, only the desk light on even though she could have illuminated the whole floor. He wondered if she liked to pretend she was still sitting back downstairs in the server room.

He glanced at his monitor and he had dozens of phone messages, all dutifully noted by Felicity - time called, expected response, names of the callers spelled perfectly along with all of their contact details. She was an exemplary EA - grossly overqualified. The only thing that made it better was that he knew that she was a consummate multi-tasker and managed to complete much of her other work during the day without anyone catching on.

Seeing her frowning at her monitor as she typed, made him get up and walk to the executive kitchen, glancing around at the pantry. He returned a few minutes later with two mugs, setting one down on her desk.

"You made me a cup of tea," she remarked quizzically, staring down at the mug and then back at his face, into his clear and steady blue eyes. 

"And with real tea - not just a teabag," he teased her.

She looked at him warily, staring at the mug and then at his face as he pulled up a chair to sit across the desk from her. There was something a little intimate about sitting in her darkened office with him. "Do you want me to do something, Oliver?" she asked him suspiciously. He felt a flicker of hurt but grinned at her.

"I just thought it would be nice to share a cup of tea."

She picked up her mug, a novelty mug in the shape of Doctor Who's Tardis and took a sip. He took a sip from his own mug and then asked her abruptly. "Do you miss being in the I.T. Department?" 

She looked startled by the question and then shrugged. "Yes," she admitted. "I was a team leader ... I had people around me who spoke my language…"

"As opposed to now you're stuck up here alone with a clueless Technomoron."

She smiled. "Hardly ... you have the coolest gadgets and tech," she pointed out.

"You know what I mean," he told her. She took another sip and stared at curiously, still wondering what had brought this on. "Thank you for agreeing to put up with this position ... "

"For being your Girl Wednesday?" she teased him and he gave a short laugh.

"Yeah, that."

He couldn't quite bring himself to tell her that Isabel's comments about Felicity had appalled him. Felicity Smoak was one of the most capable and brilliant women he had ever met and ever since Russia he had been feeling a strong sense of guilt that there might be people out there who incorrectly assumed that she had slept her way into her current position - one that she hadn't even wanted in the first place. 

John had shrugged when he had mentioned Isabel's remarks to him. "What were you expecting, Oliver? People have small minds … they like gossip and they jump to conclusions."

"So you're saying that Isabel's not the only one who made assumptions about us?"

John had smiled ruefully. "Of course not, man … and Felicity's heard the comments, too but she's committed to the mission. She doesn't let it bother her."

It bothered Oliver, though. A lot and he felt more than little remorse for having put her in a position that made her the target of nasty office gossip.

"I wouldn't want you to think that you weren't valued for your talents," he told her lamely and she shrugged.

"Jerome and others still ask me for help all the time ... and I still have honourary membership to the I.T. Department Monthly Morning Tea."

"Right. Well that's great," Oliver replied, relieved that she didn't appear to resent him for anything.

"It burns though that Ravi implies that I opted out because I thought I didn't have the stones to throw my hat in the ring for the CTO position," she confided.

"Did you really want that position?" he asked her, thinking furiously if there was a way to shift the CTO's office up to the executive floor with him.

"It wouldn't have been as interesting as my current position," she stated honestly. "I mean … it's a secret identity ... not as cool as yours, maybe but it's necessary."

"Yes... Yes it is, Felicity," he told her with a smile that curved his firm mouth and lit up his eyes. 

There were countless photographs of that cool smile of his – his chiselled features that could put a model to shame but there were almost no photographs in existence where the smile reached his eyes. Felicity Smoak was one of the few people in the world who could elicit a genuine smile from the grim-faced Oliver Queen. 

He rose to his feet and stared down at her for a long moment. "You could I couldn't do without you, right?"

"I bet you say that to all the girls," she teased and he shook his head.

"No, no I don't," he told her honestly and walked back into his office.

A little later, Felicity glanced up from her computer to see him studying her from his office. She held up her mug in a silent toast as did he. Much as she missed being in the IT department, there were some definite benefits to her new position…

**end**


End file.
